CAIRO (AP) — A court ruled Saturday that civil society groups will be allowed to monitor Egypt’s historic multi-candidate presidential election set down for next week. The administrative court also referred articles for a controversial law regulating Wednesday’s first-ever presidential vote to a court to determine their constitutionality. Both decisions, …

GAZA CITY — Palestinian children started their school year Saturday hoping that Israel’s withdrawal from the war-weary Gaza Strip meant they were free of the military raids that made their student days a nightmare. One million pupils returned to schools across the West Bank and Gaza, as Israel was putting …

BEIRUT (AP) — Under intense pressure to cooperate with a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, Syria on Saturday invited the world body’s chief investigator to Damascus to meet Syrian authorities within days. But in a move sure to turn the heat further up …